YOUNG CHILDRENS APPRECIATION OF THE MENTAL IMPACT OF THEIR COMMUNICATIVE SIGNALS

This work addresses whether 30-month-olds appreciate that their commun icative signals are being understood (or not) by another person. Infan ts produce a range of behaviors, such as repairing their failed signal s, that have been construed as evidence that they have an implicit the ory of mind. Such behavior could be interpreted as attempts to obtain some desired goal rather than as attempts to gain listener understandi ng. This study was designed to separate listener comprehension from ob taining a material goal. In 4 conditions, children either did or did n ot get what they wanted and the experimenter understood or misundersto od their request. As predicted, children clarified their signal more w hen the experimenter misunderstood compared to when she understood. Re gardless of whether young children achieved their overt goal, they eng aged in behaviors to ensure their communicative act had been understoo d.